Friday Cat Blogging – 16 March 2007

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING….On the right is Domino the sun worshipper. On the left is Inkblot the sleep worshipper.

Inkblot, it turns out, really is thinner thanks to the diet cat food we’ve been feeding him since December. A lot thinner. We took him to the vet to get him officially weighed on Wednesday, and he’s down from 22.4 pounds to 18.3 pounds. That’s a pretty astonishing drop in just a bit over three months. The office staff seemed to think it was fine, and the vet wasn’t around when we went in, but I think I’ll call him next week just to make sure this isn’t too dramatic a weight loss.

What really strikes me as remarkable is that this is even possible. I mean, for me to lose 20% of my body weight in 14 weeks I’m pretty sure I’d have to fast completely. Even at that I’m not sure I’d lose 40 pounds. But Inkblot sure isn’t fasting. He eats wet food at night and dry (diet) food all day long. Yet he’s lost 20% of his starting weight, and it sure isn’t because he’s been following an exercise plan either. He’s as active as ever, but “as ever” means he sleeps 20 hours a day just like every other housecat on the planet. It almost seems to defy the laws of physics.

But then, we all know that cats defy the laws of physics anyway. So why shouldn’t their metabolism defy the laws of physics too? Just one of those feline mysteries.

POSTSCRIPT: Just to put everybody’s mind at rest, Inkblot didn’t start losing weight for no reason. He lost weight because our vet said he was too heavy and switched us to a prescription brand of diet cat food. His appetite is fine, his coat is sleek, and he’s as active as ever. I’m still going to check with our vet about this, but there’s really no reason to think there’s anything wrong with him.

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